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The Escape
The Escape: By: Cameron Lockhart INT. FLASHBACK – EVENING (REGGIE Van Brown is a young African-American man sitting with SIMONE, his girlfriend and his only value in life, at a two-person table outside at a restaurant. He takes a deep breath.) REGGIE Simone, there’s something I have to say. SIMONE Yes, Reggie? REGGIE Well, we’ve been together for a while now, and I’ve liked that. I’ve enjoyed our relationship since Day 1, and now I just have one question for you: (Reggie kneels down on one knee and pulls out a small black case. He opens it to reveal a silver ring with a sapphire on it.) REGGIE Simone James, will you marry me? (Simone’s eyes become shaky with tears.) SIMONE Reggie, I-I don’t know what to say. (Before she can say what Reggie is hoping for, a man hurries over to them followed by the police. Reggie recognizes this man as the owner of a jewelry shop he’d been to. The SHOP OWNER is a pot-bellied Russian man with a bald head.) SHOP OWNER There! There is guy who stole ring from my shop! POLICEMAN #1 Seriously? If you thought you could get away with stealing this man’s merchandise, think again! You are under arrest for robbery! (Reggie is handcuffed and taken into the police car.) REGGIE Simone! I’ll be back as soon as possible! I love you so much! (Simone watches the police car drive away. She sits back down, and proceeds to cry hard into her hands.) SIMONE *sniff* Oh Reggie, I WILL marry you... OUT INT. REGGIE’S CELL – MORNING: (Reggie has been in jail for a week now. He is sitting on the bed lifting weights.) REGGIE *sigh*, Simone. I NEVER should’ve done that stupid thing. NOW look where it’s got me! (Reggie stops lifting weights for a bit. He sees a few guards walking another man into his cell. DUNCAN McRoy is an overweight Caucasian man around Reggie’s age, with shoulder-length hair and a bandana. The two men shake hands upon meeting for the first time.) REGGIE Hey, I’m Reggie. DUNCAN Duncan. INTO NEXT SCENE INT. REGGIE’S CELL – AFTERNOON: (Reggie and Duncan are deep in conversation.) REGGIE So yeah, that sums it up. And while it IS my fault for stealing that ring, all I can say is that Simone is all I have, and I don’t think I could stand two years without her. DUNCAN Wait, you attempted to propose? Just why the hell do they arrest people with good intentions!? REGGIE Well, some things we’ll never know. But anyways, why did YOU get arrested? DUNCAN I robbed a supermarket. REGGIE That crime’s a little too petty to get sent to jail for, isn’t it? (Before Duncan can reply, the two men overhear two guards talking in the corridor. One of which is the captain. The GUARD CAPTAIN is a big and burly man with thick facial hair and a rough Tennessee accent. GUARD #1 is a short man intimidated by the captain’s size.) GUARD CAPTAIN Yeah, so tomorrow morning the vent-cleaners are coming, and while they’re cleaning the vents, you need to make sure all the prisoners are out of their cells. GUARD #1 Um, uh, o-okay, y-y-es sir. (Reggie puts his weights down and stands up to stretch. He begins to study a large air vent on the wall to his left, as if he is plotting to escape.) REGGIE Y’know what? I’m going to escape this place! Sure, I’ll be on the lam, but at least Simone will be with me! We’ll constantly be running away from policemen, but I’ll sure be glad to be out of jail and with my girlfriend again! DUNCAN Um, do you really think that’s a good idea? REGGIE Well like my father once said: “Easy go don’t make the mare run.” I’m going to take a risk. I’m not getting out of here the easy way. DUNCAN Y’know what? You were right. This was too harsh for stealing such cheap merchandise. I’m comin’ too. REGGIE Glad to hear it, but we’ve gotta do it by tomorrow though. OUT INT. JAIL CAFETERIA – EVENING (Reggie and Duncan enter the cafeteria for dinner. Today’s dinner is bratwursts and coleslaw. After the two sit down, Duncan casually leans in close to Reggie so nobody else would hear what he is about to say.) DUNCAN Hey! I have some barbecue sauce on me. They didn’t frisk me after I stole it from the supermarket. Rookie mistake! Want some? (Duncan discretely pulls a bottle of BBQ sauce out of his pocket and shows it to Reggie.) REGGIE No, because I’m saving my brat for later. We’ll need it to help us escape. You can eat yours if you want though. (Duncan shrugs and pours a lot of it on his own brat.) DUNCAN Alright, but you’re really missing out! This is the BOURBON kind! REGGIE OK, as long as one of us doesn’t eat theirs, we have one issue under control. Now we need to take care of the rest. OUT INT. JAIL – NIGHT (Reggie and Duncan casually lie down on their beds. They wait until the guards in the hallway turn out the lights. It is now almost pitch dark. The two men don’t dare go to sleep, or else they will miss their chance. The guards are still up talking.) GUARD CAPTAIN Alright, you know the drill: You patrol the hallways and I’ll resume my shift tomorrow morning. GUARD #1 B-b-but sir, w-what will YOU be doing at this point? GUARD CAPTAIN The hell with you nosy guards! It ain’t none of your damn business! GUARD #1 Uh, OK, OK. I’m going. (Guard #1 leaves to patrol the rest of the hallways in that sector. Meanwhile, a young blonde woman walks in through the nearby door, wearing a short, form-fitting spaghetti-strap dress. She walks up to the guard captain, who begins fingering his bushy mustache.) GUARD CAPTAIN Perfect timing, baby doll, I need some. . .company tonight. GUARD CAPTAIN’S WIFE Ain’t that why ya’ called me, sugar? (She kisses the guard captain on his cheek. The couple leaves the scene.) IMMEDIATELY PANS TO NEXT SCENE INT. REGGIE’S CELL – NIGHT (Reggie peers through the bars to see if the coast is clear. The guard is nowhere to be seen. Just in case he were to walk by, Reggie stuffs his pillow underneath the covers of his bed and makes sure to stay out of the moonlit areas on the ground. He quietly digs through his bed to see if there’s an Allen-wrench. He finds one and uses it to unscrew the vent cover. Reggie beckons Duncan over. Duncan also stuffs his pillow under his covers and follows him.) INT. JAIL VENTILATION SYSTEM – NIGHT (Reggie carefully replaces the vent cover after they are both inside, and crawls through. As the two men crawl through the dark and gritty ventilation system, they pass a vent. They see that there is a small room closed off from the rest of the hall with a door. The guard captain is sitting in his office chair with his wife sitting sideways on his lap. The couple is making out. They can see a large half-gone bottle of Schnapps and two used glasses on the desk. Seeing the captain with his wife makes Reggie wipe a tear.) DUNCAN Aw man, he’s so lucky. He gets the babe, and I get Big Bertha for a wife. REGGIE Yeah, that’s a bummer. Now will you shut up? We’re not free yet. (Duncan and Reggie keep going through the air ducts, not stopping until they see the moon shining through one of the vents.) EXT. JAIL YARD – 1:00am: (After crawling for hours, Reggie quietly opens the air vent. The sky is now more of a purplish color, due to the sun beginning to rise, though it is still dark. He and Duncan are now extremely close to escaping prison. Duncan surveys the large dirt-field lying between him and the gates leading out of the jail compound. He knows they can’t just cross the field, for there are dozens of specially trained police-dogs patrolling it. Reggie pulls the bratwurst from earlier out of the pocket of his prison-uniform. (He had saved it so he could distract them).) REGGIE Alright, here goes. NO dog can resist a still warm weenie. (Reggie looks around for a way to get the meat far enough away in order to get past the dogs. As if he knows what Reggie is thinking, Duncan pulls a slingshot out of his pocket.) REGGIE Wait, what? You have THAT on you TOO? DUNCAN I always keep it on me in case I need self-defense. I’ve heard of the bad things that happen in jail, and I wanted to be prepared. Lucky for me, I managed to sneak it in here. (Reggie shrugs, and loads the bratwurst into the slingshot, (after reluctantly letting Duncan slather it with his BBQ sauce before doing so). But just as he is aiming, a guard comes out. GUARD #2 is a man in his 40’s with a New York accent. He sees GUARD #3 - a man in his 60’s who is easily prone to falling asleep on the job - snoozing 6 feet directly below the vent that Reggie and Duncan are in. Duncan quickly and quietly closes the vent cover to avoid them being seen.) GUARD #2 Hey! Wake up! If the boss catches you sleeping on the job, you’re dead meat! GUARD #3 Huh? What? Oh! REGGIE Damn it. Now I gotta deal with THESE two as well? *sigh* Oh well. (Reggie fires off the bratwurst. The dogs chase after it, even going so far as to chasing it outside the compound walls. The two guards chase the dogs as they run outside the compound and begin fighting over the bratwurst. With the dogs distracted by the warm juicy meat, and the guards distracted chasing them, Reggie slips out of the vent and beckons Duncan to follow him. Duncan falls down on the dirt field as he tries to get down (causing Reggie to roll his eyes). He closes the vent cover, and hurries across the field behind Reggie. They are careful not to run (because someone could hear their footsteps) and are careful of the moving lights from the watch-towers. The guards return, leading the dogs back into the jail compound. Reggie and Duncan hide amongst the shadows near the gate. The guards bring the guard dogs inside.) GUARD #3 Geez these mutts. What’s gotten into them? GUARD #2 Well, we’ll just get the other dogs and have THEM on patrol. (Reggie sees the guards nearing the door into the jail. There is a large button next to it that opens and closes the gate. He beckons Duncan to follow him as he quickly moves for the open gate. They both manage to get out unseen, just as one of the guards presses the button. They are free!) REGGIE So long, Duncan! Good luck! DUNCAN Same to you! (After one last hand-shake, Reggie proceeds to sprint away from the jail compound, heading off to his unsuspecting girlfriend’s house to surprise her. Meanwhile, Duncan sprints off in the other direction.) OUT INT. SIMONE’S HOUSE – 2:00am: (Simone is sitting on her couch under a blanket, wearing a nightgown which comes just below her hips and shows a lot of her chest, and eating Rocky Road ice cream straight from the tub. A sad part begins in the soap opera she’s watching. Simone leans into something, resting her head in it, though quickly realizing that it’s just a cushion and not Reggie. She wipes a few tears and sniffles a little. Now there are two things to feel sad about: Reggie, and the soap opera. She hears a knock on the door and gets up to answer it.) SIMONE R-Reggie?? REGGIE Simone! (The couple embraces in a hug and starts making out. After the kiss, Simone lets Reggie into the house.) SIMONE I’m sure the cops are probably after you by now, but I don’t care! I just missed you so much! You can stay here as long as you’d like…at least until this issue blows over. REGGIE Thank you. *Yawn* As of now, I’m pretty tired. SIMONE So am I. Wait up there for me, OK? Just gotta pit this away. (Reggie nods and heads upstairs. Simone does the same after putting the already half-eaten ice-cream tub away.) SIMONE (in her thoughts) I’ll DEFINITELY need to watch my figure after TONIGHT. The End.